http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1360091/Heart-attacks-Cycling-work-biggest-causes.html
Funnily the numbers don't really say that, but never let the truth etc, yawn. Not reading the comments. Okay I will.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
Wurr aww dooomed! Doomed (according to Faily Daily)
(17 posts)-
Posted 13 years ago #
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As far as I can tell the Lancet didn't say that either. The "paper" seems to have conflated some risk factors and assumptions to come up with this story.
My auntie sent the link to me but I think she just does it for fun. I'll be replacing her hard drive at the weekend and I'll get to her house by bike.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Just FYI, here is a useful resource if you want to spread the word about terrible/idiotic/mistaken things that the Faily Mail have written but avoid bumping up their website traffic stats and hence advertising revenue:
http://istyosty.com/wtf.php
Just go to the home page and put the link in there and fume away with a clear conscience ;) - it comes up a LOT at my office (I work in comms)!Of course, there's always this slightly more drastic solution:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/kitten-block/Posted 13 years ago # -
Just read the highly rated comments, all balanced against the "article" so modded them up to try and keep them there. Didn't read the morons comments.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Cripes. We'll need another version of that public health warning advert where the bloke (who looked a bit like a cross between Ewen Bremner and Ralf Little) snorted some cocaines, went all chatty and funny but then got SCARY CHEST PAINS. Perhaps they could depict a MAMIL straining to the top of a hill (holding up honest law-abiding motor traffic as he goes) then taking a hand off the handlebars whilst going downhill to clutch at his shuddering chest, losing control, speeding through a red light, onto a pavement and ploughing through a crowd of schoolchildren and pensioners.
Posted 13 years ago # -
"Cycling has always been touted as being good for health, but now a study has found that it is actually one of the biggest triggers of heart attacks."
This is where "public understanding of science" comes in, and you can see what a disservice the media provides.
The paper specifically doesn't say that you're more likely to have a heart attack if you cycle.
It examines a group of people that we know for certain are going to have a heart attack, and asks what triggered the arrest.
Exercise - oh, that's news.
If you look at the effect cycling has on your health, one study found that people who rode to work were 40% less likely to die over the study period.
You can draw conclusions from this, but not the same ones the media would like you to make:
- taking up cycling is one of the best things you can do for your health
- but, if your health is so bad that you *know* you're going to have a heart attack soon, don't exercise and you may last a bit longer before it happens.Posted 13 years ago # -
I've asked Straight Statistics (www.straightstatistics.org) if they might have a look at this; I don't know where to start!
Posted 13 years ago # -
Press complaints commission? Do they deal with basically untrue headlines or does it not count because it's an enterpretation?? (sigh)
Posted 13 years ago # -
In my experience, the PCC is generally pretty rubbish (sort of unsurprisingly since it's an optional self-regulating body funded by the newspapers it's supposed to regulate) and even more so with headlines - although I can't see any reason in the Code of Practice ("The Press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information, including pictures") why they wouldn't respond to headlines, I do recall reading that they don't. Have a look at:
http://www.mailwatch.co.uk/2010/12/08/At least the Mail is still covered by the PCC, for what little it's worth - its clone, the Express Group, have opted out and now can print whatever they please. Lovely.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Didn't SRD get the PCC to force the daily hate to apologise over the incorrect use of a photo in a piece about how toddlers cycling on pavements are going around killing pensioners and taking jobs off of "local people"?
Posted 13 years ago # -
Hmmm, think I'm far more likely to suffer a heart attack from reading the Daily Mail: "negative emotions (3.9 per cent), anger (3.1 per cent)" than I am from riding a bike.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Incidentally, Melanie Phillips, occasional spouter of hate in the Daily Wail, will be a guest columnist in the next issue of Citycycling.
No really, she will. Jeremy Clarkson, who was the last guest columnist, convinced her it was a good thing to do for PR...
Posted 13 years ago # -
"Didn't SRD get the PCC to force the daily hate to apologise over the incorrect use of a photo"
ABSOLUTELY!!
http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1271#post-15812
Posted 13 years ago # -
"It’s one of those “Well, what do you expect?” type articles that probably serves us right for even looking at the Daily Mail online."
Posted 13 years ago # -
Found this on le Guardian site
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/green-living-blog/2011/feb/25/myth-cycling-heart-attacksPosted 13 years ago # -
Thanks Mabs, that's comforting.
Posted 13 years ago #
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